Makes total sense, let’s do that.
Update:
As discussed in the conf thread, we’ll spend our coworking week living around and working from Usaquén, which is a somewhat affluent neighborhood located in Northeast Bogotá, right at the feet of the Eastern Hills. This location was recommended to us by the team at eduNEXT as a safe and convenient area to make as our home base. Other sources recommended this area, too. The lively neighborhood of Chapinero is close by, and dining options abound. So Usaquén, although a bit far from the historical center, looked like a safe choice, and a good balance between a quiet (boring?) neighborhood and the hustle & bustle of downtown.
We will be working from Cola+Bora, a nice coworking space located right at the heart of Usaquén. We should all be able to reach the coworking either on foot, by bus, or by Uber (short, cheap ride).
Our friends at eduNEXT, as discussed above, have also offered that we visit their offices in Chapinero for some kind of collaborative workshop. This is a good idea, so I’ll be meeting with them next week to discuss it in more detail, and I’ll update you.
I’ve also built a list of accommodation options, and will schedule tasks next week for people to add their names to bookings, or to find their Airbnbs.
It would be great if some of you could start looking at activities : ) Short ones that we can do on a weeknight, and perhaps a few ideas for daytrips on the weekend?
5 Likes
Here are some ideas I like… what do people think?
- Cycling tour in the city
- Walking tour of the city
- Coffee tour
- Hiking day trip (e.g. Chingaza National Park or Guatavita Lagoon)
- Thermal hot springs day trip (e.g. Termales Los Volcanes)
- Salsa dancing
- Club dancing
- Bar hopping
- Other ideas?
0 voters
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Thank you Jill : ) We were restricted to two votes, but I’m down with pretty much everything from the list.
1 Like
Ach sorry – the default said “0”, which I assumed meant all… I’ve recreated the poll so you can say as many as you want!
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Like I’ve mentioned above, Juan, Felipe, and Angie at eduNEXT would like to organize an in-person, collaborative “hack-a-thon” with OpenCraft, hosted at eduNEXT’s office. This would be a great opportunity to discuss common issues or ideas, and increase our collaboration in the future.
- Can someone please volunteer to coordinate with eduNEXT, and organize this? Planning this event is probably a few hours, tops. I’d prefer if someone technical could handle it (especially when it comes to choosing topics, etc.). I think all we need is a dedicated thread and a Google Doc.
- What budget can we use to organize/attend this? @antoviaque @tikr
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Good question. In terms of existing accounts, OpenCraft - Conferences seems fitting, although we might decide to choose a more specific one depending on the topic(s) that will be tackled during the workshop/hack-a-thon.
As for the actual budget/dollar amount to use, that’s a question for @antoviaque 
@gabriel This is great! Though if we spend time on a hackathon, it would have to come from the conference/coworking budget, we can’t really afford new budgets or extensions currently. Unless it’s on a project which is within the scope of core contributor work, in which case it could be part of that existing budget? (It could also help making the outcome of the hackathon useful to the Open edX project.)
Got it, thanks. So far we’re slightly below the target budget, so it looks like we could afford it. But it would indeed make sense to make the outcome of the hackathon useful to the larger community. 
Yay! Thanks for voting everyone :) I’ve created a task for next sprint to organize 1-2 of these. If anyone else would like to organize something too, feel free to jump on!
I’ve also started maps for us (also linked from the epic), so feel free to start filling them in! Since it’s got accommodation locations, I’ve kept it private to OpenCraft, but if anyone from eduNEXT or tCRIL want access, just ask
4 Likes
Hi @gabriel. I know you’re on the team of people helping to select talks for the conference, so maybe you can help. Do you know when they will be announcing which talks have been selected (I think @sarina said Feb 8)? I can’t get my Colombian visa without an entry and exit ticket, and can’t buy tickets until I know whether I’ll be going to Boston or not. It’s a whole thing. 
Hi @Ali – I got an email from event9501@notifications.sessionize.com saying my talk had been accepted, but gmail hid it in my Forum tab. Have you received any emails from sessionize?
Hi @jill. I have received an email from Sessionize before and don’t see anything in the forum tab, nor in my spam. Maybe that means my talk wasn’t accepted 
. I would’ve imagined that they’d notify me of a rejection though. I wonder.
I logged into Sessionize, and see that my proposal is still labelled as “in evaluation”.
Hey @Ali, I saw below that you were able to log into Sessionize, and see that your proposal was still under evaluation. Just as a precaution, I’m pinging @feanil, who can provide info on the timeline.
1 Like
@gabriel @jill just received a mail to say my talk was not selected. Next time! Thanks for your help on this thread, and looking forward to meeting you both in Colombia! 
I did a little research and asked Felipe from eduNEXT for advice, and I think this is our best bet for a day trip:
Termales Los Volcanes at Chocontá / Machetá:
- 80km drive from Bogota, a 2.3h bus ride from Bogota’s North terminal station.
- For people who’d rather not soak, you can get off the bus at the Sisga Reservoir, and do all or part of the lovely perimeter hike (25km long, 387m elevation gain/loss).
Complexities:
- There are apparently 2 bus companies that can take us there, but neither of their online ticket sales are showing availability for that or any day I tried
Flota ta Valle de Tenza
Flota la Macarena - We’re there the week before Easter. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are definitely going to present difficulties – they’re big public holidays, so many places will be closed – but also, everywhere is likely to be crowded with people on holiday.
Thoughts?
3 Likes
Thanks for looking into this @jill. 
Hmmm, travelling 2.3h both ways seems quite long to me for a day trip. The hot springs and hike do look awesome though! Let me do a bit of research over the next few days and see if I come up with any bright ideas.
2 Likes
I feel you @Ali - it does feel like a long travel time for a day trip. I’ve never tried a hot spring, so that would be a cool experience!
@jill I said to @pooja on our social chats, I love how super organised you are (especially referring to your restaurant research! 
) Thanks for getting this started.
I also thought I could take a look at the Airbnb experiences and see if anything stands out - the bike tour was a real winner last year (not for @Fox unfortunately!) so maybe something on there that will inspire!